Thursday, February 27, 2003

41

Seth Michaels was at the George the First speech at Tufts and gives us a rundown. It's very interesting that Senior is in a bit of a defensive posture as he tries to explain why he didn't "finish the job" as the neocon imperialists accuse him of 20 times a day all over the media. He had some very good reasons, one of which was that they would never have been able to fulfill Madrid if they had exceeded the UN mandate.

And, Madrid and the peace process managed to ratchet down the violence in Israel for almost 10 years and was very well worth trying. It's one of the main keys to future peace in the region and at least Poppy had the brains to see that.

I'm not a big fan of the guy in general, but I have to admit that the press treated him unfairly today by only highlighting his rude joke:

"We've now found another real good reason to use duct tape"

It's a typical Bush smartass remark, but according to Seth he'd also said this:

"I understand where they're coming from, and I hope they'll listen and understand where I'm coming from...I hope those demonstrators, who are speaking from their hearts, understand this...what we seek is not hegemony, but compliance with a wide variety of UN resolutions. I think there is such a concept as a just war...the 43rd president shares the innately human desire to avoid conflict that might kill innocent people."

Seth says: Pretty classy for a 78-year-old guy who just got the finger from a 20-year-old. Also worth noting is that he did not, as his son and his son's administration have done, try to link Iraq directly to Al-Qaeda:

"Today we have another ingredient we didn't have in 1991 - Sept. 11. I'm not saying that there's a conspiracy between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, but the U.S. must protect its citizens and friends."

It's always been my contention that the bitchy, Dowdian KewlKidz style of political reporting started with Bush and that supermarket scanner. It was misrepresented at the time and then used against him as if what they'd said was true. Needless to say, Clinton and Gore suffered from the same treatment.

I naturally assumed that any president would be subjected to this treatment going forward, but I was wrong. President FratBoy was exempted from any serious scrutiny from day 1. I can only assume that the Republicans became so good at manufacturing these scandals and embarrassments that the press forgot how to do it for themselves. Today, they were reminded by seeing ole' 41 and they fell back into step. I can't think of how else to explain it.